Page 1 of Desperate Omega

PROLOGUE

“How much farther, Syra?”

I stop crawling and look back in the direction of the voice. Not that looking does me any good; the inside of the air duct is too dark to see anything, even for a Zone-dweller such as myself. Still, I can’t help flashing my friend Markus one of those looks I always give him whenever he’s being whiny. I know he also can’t see my disdainful expression in the dark, so I make sure he can hear it in my voice.

“Quiet,” I hiss. “Do you want the alphas to hear us?”

“I’m an alpha too,” he says sullenly.

I suppose that’s true—Markus is an alpha—but that’s not what I meant. I’m worried about the big alphas. The adult alphas. Markus is only a boy of thirteen, and the runt of his litter at that. He’s smaller than I am, even though we’re the same age, and I’m an omega.

“Just shut up and follow me,” I whisper. “And stop breathing all over my feet, it tickles.”

“This whole thing is a bad idea,” Markus mutters.

I ignore that and continue crawling forward. The duct is narrow, with barely enough room for me to turn around, should I need to. An adult omega would never be able to fit in here, let alone a full grown alpha. But then, the ducts were never intended for crawling. Once upon a time, they used to carry air chilled by machines, or so I’ve been told.

This building is what the ancestors called a hotel, a place for travelers to sleep. And this particular hotel was a big one, with lots of floors and lots of rooms. But there’s one special room that’s bigger than the others—a lot bigger—and it lies at the very center of the building. That’s where I’m trying to get to.

That’s where the ritual is happening.

I’m still too young for the mating ritual—only adults are allowed to attend—but telling me I’m not allowed to do something is pretty much the best way to make me want to do it, so here I am, crawling through an air duct in total darkness.

I stop moving for a moment to get my bearings, and Markus’s face slams straight into my bottom. Thankfully, I’m wearing an animal hide loincloth, or else the situation would be even more embarrassing than it already is.

“Sorry,” Markus whispers behind me, his breath sweeping over my legs.

“Do you have to follow so close?” I whisper back.

“I don’t want to get lost. It’s dark in here.”

I sigh and roll my eyes. I never should have agreed to let Markus tag along on this adventure, but he can be damned persistent, and he’s the only friend I’ve got. The other young omegas don’t want anything to do with me because I’m too much of a tomboy. Markus, being a runt, is in a similar boat. His male peers all pick on him, and the females just ignore him. That means we’re stuck being friends with each other. Nobody else will have us.

“Quiet,” I tell him again. “Listen…”

The sound is faint, but I can feel it rumbling through the bottom of the duct. When I lower my head and press my ear against the metal, I can hear it even better. The slow, steady throb of many voices chanting in unison. Deep voices. Alphas.

“We’re close,” I whisper. “Come on.”

Markus grabs my ankle before I have a chance to start moving again.

“Wait!” he says. “Maybe we should turn back.”

I growl softly in annoyance. Markus can be such a little wimp sometimes. He’s supposed to be an alpha. If anything, he should be the one leading this little expedition, not me.

Then again, Markus isn’t like other alpha boys.

And I’m not like other omegas.

I guess it has something to do with the way my fathers brought me up. My mother died bringing me into the world, but my fathers never held that against me. They are the most loving and protective fathers a girl could ask for, though I sometimes get the impression they would have liked to have an alpha son instead of an omega daughter. In fact, they’ve raised me as if I were their son. While other omega girls were home learning how to mend clothing and care for babies, I was out in the woods with my fathers, learning how to gut and skin a rabbit I had killed.

That’s fine by me. I have zero interest in doing girly omega stuff. None. And I definitely never want to become the shared mate for a pack of stupid alphas.

Though I am still curious to see what this secretive mating ritual is all about.

“Let me go,” I say, jerking my ankle out of Markus’s grasp. “You can turn back if you don’t have the balls for it. Me, I’m going ahead.”

“Then I’m coming too,” says Markus.